Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy

Use this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy to increase your rank, by becoming more aware of things you need to not only watch out for, but of course address. I am not the best player, but I will tell you some mistakes I see many rank 10-50 players doing fairly often. Understanding and overcoming them, will help you and your team to win more often.

Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy

Analyze the current situation

To start out on this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy, we need to analyze the current situation, including watching the map, being aware of clashes between enemies, and when possible, the possibility of an ambush. When an objective spawns (for example tribute), do not just take it. Watch the mini map. Where is your team? Where is the enemy team? Are you ahead on level? Do they have level 10 already?

What I see with many of the lower ranks is someone going solo to tribute trying to take it. AMBUSH! 2 or 3 enemies jump out of the bush and kill him. When he is dead he watches the mini map and notices his mates are still farming bot.

Check the mini map! If you don't see any enemy, but one of you mates is still bot, the chance is high you will fight 4v5. Just give them the tribute, don’t fight when you can predict the enemy will win. If you see one of the enemies is farming bot and you are a full 5, then go for it. When the temple spawns bot and you are already at the bot, wait for your team! Don’t go there alone. Be patient. Let the the enemy get the first 5 shots and when your team is there go for it. If you are behind in talents (For example, if they have lvl 4,7,10,13,16 or 20 and you don't), or one of your mates is dead you can’t contest it at all. Just leave it to enemies and farm some experience instead.

Make sure every lane is covered by someone

For you to fully understand this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy, you need to understand that the experience is essential in early game (well actually the whole game). If you are on a solo lane, don’t go gank and leave your lane empty. If you get the kill it will equalize the experience you lose by being out of your lane. If you don't get the kill you will end up being behind. Don’t leave the lane empty for mercenaries. You have 5 people, 3 of you can farm each lane and 2 do mercs. If you are 2 bottom and your solo mid dies go to mid until he is back - unless the objectives spawn all 3 lanes, you should be covered.

When you have time, a key concept with this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy guide, is to watch a random replay, only pay attention to the mini map and see if all lanes are covered. you may be surprised. The main rule is to farm to level 10, but if all the buildings are still up, you can farm to ~lvl 13. If you start walk as a team too early, the enemy can easily destroy your walls and towers on empty lanes.

Make calls/ lead your team

This portion of the Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy is very important. If you die at tribute because you tried to capture it 1v3, don’t blame your mates for not coming. Instead, notify them that you need help and tell them to come before you die. If you read the mini map you can know where the 5 enemies are. If one of your mates go there and dies don’t blame him because it was obvious. Instead ping him to retreat before he dies. Tell your teammates to wait for the team and not to engage 4v5.

Read the minimap

By now in this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy, you will realize that watching the mini map is essential to game play. It's probably one of the most - if not the, most important parts about ranking up in Heroes of the Storm. Maybe you noticed the other points required mini map already.

The mini map is a strong tool of information. when you are dead watch it and analyze enemy movement. When you are walking from A to B watch it. When you go heal at fountain you can shift-click to go back to lane automatically, and during the time watch the map. Do watch a replay and click on a character of your team and hold down v (-Vision). Watch the replay and try to predict where the enemy will go. Release v and see if you were correct. Try the same thing during the game. You don’t need perfect mechanics to climb ranks but a good read of mini map is absolutely essential. Think about it as being able to spy on your enemies, possibly without them knowing!

Mercenary camps

No objectives are on the map and only a single yellow mercenary camp is left on the mini map. You will have the urge to capture it, but the enemy will have the same urge. This is similar to tip 1 (analyze the situation) of this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy Guide. Could the enemy come to the camp? If yes could you fight them? If no, don't take the camp. Instead, wait for your team. You killed 3 enemies on bot lane in Blackhearts Bay. They are dead for 25 seconds. Now is the perfect time to take the boss right? You will need ~ 20 seconds to go top and an additional 20 seconds to kill it. The enemy spawn 5 sec after you started it and they have a much shorter distance to cover to get it. Probably they will just arrive when the boss is almost done, and you are still low life, out of mana, and your spells are on cooldown. You will die and the enemy will get the boss. If they don't see anyone of you on the lanes its obvious you are at the boss. If you see 2 of them, defending bruiser on botlane and all 5 of your team are near boss you can then go for it. The other 2 will need about 20 seconds + about 7 seconds to realize you are on the boss. This is enough time to kill the boss. If the other 3 come, kill them and then take the boss (you should win 3v5, even if you wasted basic abilities on the boss).

Every time you take a mercenary and you die, the enemies get it because your team didn’t come. It is your fault not your teams fault. Just leave it when you notice your team doesn’t come.

Before taking any camp ask yourself: Is it safe? Could the enemy come or are they dead/need to defend something. If they can come, who will win the fight?

Do you do all this, and are still low rank?

Do all the Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy tips seem a bit obvious and perhaps you knew it already? Maybe you watch the mini map sometimes and know where enemies are at the moment. Your team didn’t see it and you feel like they are all noobs. The thing is, you do it only sometimes, rather then all the time. When a mate or enemy dies, but you were not involved you should still immediately be able to tell who killed him and where he died if you watch the mini map carefully. Sometimes someone dies and I am surprised. Huh? We killed someone? Nice! And sometimes I take unfavorable fights because I think we are 5 but we are not (This happens when I forget a team mate is dead and I see no one hanging around somewhere so I assume all are here). But that happens rarely to me and that is what I personally need to improve. Even though you may know all those stuff your first step with this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy Guide to improve is to admit you don’t do it constantly. I see rank 1 players mess up that stuff sometimes so I am sure you mess up at times as well.

Watch replays

I wouldn't put this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy Guide tip at the very top, but it's easily one of the things which can help you become much better at HotS. I can understand if you want to play rather than watch boring replays but it can show off a lot mistakes you do! When you see others playing you sometimes think ‘wtf are they doing’ but you know what you are doing. Watch a replay of a game you don’t remember anymore and you will see yourself like a foreign guy and think ‘wtf am I doing?’. Also it’s good to practice at again, reading tje mini map. Go to the edge of map with the camera so you can only focus on the mini map. Pay attention to the points above. Is every lane covered? Try to predict enemy movement by only seeing one teams vision (holding down v-button). When it comes to a fight try to predict who will win (lvl 10 vs9? 3v4?). Could the loser have avoided the fight? Is it safe to take camps that they are just taking?

Go with the team

Teamplay is essential to HotS, and it's a point where we can't just tell you to start hanging with your mates in this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy Guide. You instead are going to need to determine it yourself. After you reach level 13 and some walls and towers are down you should start working as a team more (there is no rule, usually you just feel when the team phase starts). If your team goes for the boss but you know it would be better to push, go with the team. If you do the wrong thing solo, remember that 5 is better than 1 at doing the right thing - even when it's the wrong thing at that time. You win the fights easily if you outnumber the enemy. So always go with the largest groups of mates (some exceptions apply).

Key points of this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy Guide

Don’t fight if you will lose (even for objectives)

Farm experience on all lanes.

Don’t take risky mercenaries just because they are there.

Admit you do mistakes, not only your team

Try to figure out the mistakes by watching replays

Practice the read of mini map

One last note about this Heroes of the Storm Basic Strategy Guide: If you die it is basically never your teams fault (when you die in a fair team fight it is no ones fault, it just happens). You lose the fight because 2 of your mates didn’t come? Why the hell did you fight then? 3v5 is not going to win! Of course it would be better if they came. But they didn’t so don’t fight. If your other mate engages the 3v5 let him die. Better 1 dies than 3. After losing a fight (even 3v5) they will all cry about bad focus. If you lose a standard 5v5 it still can be because positioning, someone had cd on ultimate, level advantage etc.. But in the lower ranks the games are not won by the team who do better in 5v5 because people keep figting uneven fights.